Do Dai people celebrate the Spring Festival?

Water-splashing Festival is the new year of Dai calendar, and Dai people also celebrate the Spring Festival.

As a native of Xishuangbanna Han nationality (actually a minority here), celebrating the Songkran Festival (that is, the Dai New Year, the most solemn festival of the Dai people in a year, just like the Han Spring Festival) has always been the most anticipated thing in a year. I have been celebrating the Songkran Festival for as long as I can remember. Since then, my expectation for the Songkran Festival has even exceeded the Spring Festival. Because, although there are delicious clothes to wear during the Spring Festival, staying at home for a long time is always boring. After the Water-splashing Festival, we can not only splash water happily, but also buy all kinds of Dai snacks near the Dai stockade, watch all kinds of traditional songs and dances performed by the Dai people, watch the excitement and climb from the blue sky (earth rockets made by the Dai people). I'm really excited, very excited!

For decades, the Songkran Festival has been celebrated in this way. Although the local Han people also set off firecrackers and fireworks during the Spring Festival, and other ethnic groups in the state also have their own festivals, the Songkran Festival has always been the most grand and lively festival in Xishuangbanna. Of course, with the acceleration of the pace of information society, the trend of communication and integration among ethnic groups is becoming more and more obvious, and the form of water-splashing festival has also changed slightly. However, as a national festival, it still inherits the traditional things and shows the symbolic differences between the Dai people and other ethnic groups. This difference is something that melts in the blood, but it also depends on or depends on the environment in which they live and the culture they inherit. It cannot be changed by a government or an action.

Compared with my experience of celebrating Spring Festival and Songkran Festival in the past 30 years, in fact, these two festivals reflect the characteristics of two nationalities. Relatively speaking, the Spring Festival is more about individuals or individuals, and its celebrations are limited to families. Songkran Festival is a more group festival, involving a wider range, at least a stockade group activity. For the Han nationality, the theme and content of the Spring Festival is nothing more than family reunion and respect for elders. For the Dai people, the Water-sprinkling Festival is not only of traditional significance, but also of far-reaching significance: after the founding of New China, the Dai and other ethnic minorities, who have been in a weak position for thousands of years, have achieved equality among all ethnic groups, and their long-term inferiority complex has been greatly improved, which has made them feel proud and proud, and has produced a sense of pride that as a minority, they can also get along with powerful ethnic groups such as the Han nationality on an equal footing. Festivals of this nation naturally become an important carrier for them to display their national traditions and gain respect and recognition from other nations.